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Talk:Shakespearean Echo Chamber/@comment-24986436-20140625005830
PRINCE HENRY Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father. FALSTAFF Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare. PRINCE HENRY Well, here I am set. FALSTAFF And here I stand: judge, my masters. PRINCE HENRY Now, Harry, whence come you? FALSTAFF My noble lord, from Eastcheap. PRINCE HENRY The complaints I hear of thee are grievous. FALSTAFF 'Sblood, my lord, they are false: nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith. PRINCE HENRY Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villanous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing? FALSTAFF I would your grace would take me with you: whom means your grace? PRINCE HENRY That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan. FALSTAFF My lord, the man I know. PRINCE HENRY I know thou dost. FALSTAFF But to say I know more harm in him than in myself, were to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it; but that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! if to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world. PRINCE HENRY I do, I will. ~ Henry IV, Part One (2.4.422-466) I'm going back to the main tavern scene in ''Henry IV, Part One because it gave us such an insight into the characters of both Falstaff AND Prince Hal. It showed us the wonderful jesting nature of Falstaff, even going as far as to mock the crown with a cushioned crown and a knife for a scepter. It showed us his extreme desire to stay within the good favor of Prince Hal, so that he may be favored the day Prince Hal turned to the throne. It showed us the mercurial nature of Prince Hal and his realization that he will not be able to hang around the tavern folk for all his life. '' ''There was a lot of gravity in this scene. That being said, the humor was there, too. A cushion on the head for a crown. Falstaff's drunken ramblings and begging of Prince Hal to spare him. Roger Allam's humorous deliverance of "Depose me??" in the scene Dr. Anderson showed us. The scene, laced with serious implications, still manages to keep audiences like us laughing. '' ''The scene depicted the true natures of Falstaff and Prince Hal. Falstaff is a swaggering braggart, sure, but he also knows the danger of the situation he's in, and I like the reading that he knows it and is worried by it. Prince Hal, like I said earlier, has come to the realization that he's going to have to change sometime, and this worries HIM. He's uncomfortable with the idea of deposing his friends, his band of brothers. He's uncomfortable with the idea of becoming king, as exhibited by his fidgeting with the cushion crown on his head. He doesn't like these things, but he knows they are a necessity. '' ''It's a wonderful scene, pregnant with all sorts of emotions. And Falstaff is the crux of it all. ''